10. Fake luxury products

Fake designer products aren’t unique to Italy, but what is unique is that if you are caught with one, you can be charged with a €10,000 fine!

What to do:

Fakes are usually found on the streets and with prices that are too good to be true.

Learn how to separate the wheat from the chaff, or only visit licensed and reputable dealers.

You can find these by doing some online research or by asking your hotel / hostel staff.

If you do not want to go through the hassle of researching, other options available include:

Using local connections: get a local to bring you around.

Multi-day tour throughTourRadar: all the best multi-day tours by established names like Intrepid Travel, G Adventures, Trafalgar, etc can be found here with best price guarantee.

Shopping tour through GetYourGuide: best day tours platform in Europe – excellent curation of tours, tickets and transport with best price guarantee.

11. The rose scam

How it works:

This same scam is common in France, where ladies with their husbands / boyfriends are usually targeted.

What happens is that the scammer will compliment your looks and then pass you a rose.

Should you take it, he will hound your husband / boyfriend for money.

It works as only a small amount of money is asked for and your husband / boyfriend is made to look like a jerk if he forces you to pass the rose back.

What to do:

Never accept anything from a stranger on the streets. It is never free.

12. Gold ring scam

How it works:

A gypsy will coincidentally find a gold ring on the floor, point at the “18k” hallmark on the ring and offer it to you (it is actually worthless polished brass).

There ARE people who take it. It can be very convincing and goes something like this:

Scammer: “Sir, did you drop this ring?”You: “No, I did not”Scammer: “Well, you can give it to your wife, why not? It will make her happy. They might also insist that their religion prevents them from keeping the ring.

If you accept, the gypsy will demand money in return. She will simply say:

Scammer: “Sir, I am hungry, could you give me some money / change for a croissant?”

When you give, they will ask for more.

Sometimes, the scammer might walk away and reappear 5 minutes later to demand your money. Whatever it is, they will stop at nothing to get money from you.

The most scheming ones will have an accomplice pickpocket you while you are protesting.

Rome: Termini central railway station metro to any tourist destination from here, bus 64 (shuttles back and forth to St. Peter’s Square, also known as the pickpockets’ express), trains to and from Fiumicino (the international airport).

11. Car rental accusations

Just like in Mexico, you might find yourself charged for damages on a car you rented which were not incurred during your usage.

Some tricks of the trade:

Damages: the company notice certain light scratches / damages and demand that you pay a fee for it.

Chipped windshield: Again, similar to the one on damages.

Spare tire / other item swap: While returning the car, an employee might come out when you are distracted and swap the spare tire for a spoilt one. Other items in your car can be swapped as well. You will then be asked to pay to repair the items.

What to do:

Ask a local or your hotel / hostel to recommend reputable shops to rent from.

Or find them through legitimate portals like AutoEurope– over 60 years of industry experience, super reliable with best price guarantee.

Also, take photos of the car and inspect it thoroughly for dents or scratches and sound out before signing any forms.

12. Flat tire scam

Autostrada

How it works:

There have been reports of the flat tire scam along the rest stops or services along the autostrada between Naples to Salerno and also at Milan.

However, as along as you drive, you should be careful of this scam.

One variation of this scam is that as you are driving, a motorist / car asks you to pull over. They then tell you that you have a flat tire (or some damage to your car).

Should you come out of your car, the accomplice will head to the other side of your car to snatch any valuables he can find.

Another variation is for the scammer to slash the tires of your parked car. He informs you of it, and offers to bring you to a garage (which is basically a secluded place for them to rob you).

Else, if you prefer to work on fixing the tire on the spot, the scammer’s accomplices will simply steal from your car while you are distracted.

What to do:

Do not stop if asked to pull over by strangers but if you choose to, only stop at places with lights and in full view of oncoming traffic.

Should there be any damage, drive to a garage to fix it, rather than allowing the “good Samaritan” to help you.

Get a good travel insurance (e.g. World Nomads, trusted by Lonely Planet and National Geographic – check our review) which covers loss of valuables.

2. Holiday apartment scam

Mountain house on the Italian Alps

How it works:

With the rising popularity of apartment rental sites like AirBnB which makes once exclusive private villas at Lake Como accessible to the masses, unfortunately the number of fraudulent listings have increased as well.

This is because it is really easy for scammers to pull off, very lucrative and difficult for authorities to catch.

Some warning signs to watch out for:

Prices that are too good to be true.

Illogical descriptions because they copy and paste without any edits.

Dodgy sounding reviews.

Difference in photos provided and pictures seen with Google Street View.

Payment only by bank transfer off the booking platform (note: they will use names that include the original booking platform to make it seem like you are still dealing with the platform).

Or payment to a foreign bank account or via Western Union / MoneyGram (sure sign of scam as transfers are irreversible).

Owner is overseas, insists on only using English in emails and emails are worded in poor English.

If the “owner” refuses to provide more details or to allow for a tour of the place.

What to do:

Only book via legitimate accommodation platforms such as:

Booking.com: Frommer’s tests have found the site to offer the best selection and rates amongst competing sites most of the time.

Homestay: if you are up for gaining genuine insights of Italy by staying with a local host!

Next, some due diligence to be done on individual listings:

Search online reviews and Google the names of the owner.

Call the phone number provided on the listing.

Grill the “landlord” by asking specific questions, such as room dimensions or something unique as seen in the photos.

You can even pretend something exists in the online photos and test if the “landlord” can call your bluff.

Search if the property has another online presence or contact number and engage that to see if they are consistent.

Test the owner by requesting for a visit from a local friend before booking – it doesn’t have to happen, you just want to test the owner’s receptiveness.

Finally, avoid paying in full upfront or making payment off the platform.

3. Currency switcheroo

Differences between Euro and Lira coins. Source: italyexplained.com

How it works:

The Lira is the old Italian currency that was in use till 2001 / 2, and the Lira 500 coin looks awfully like the €2 coin.

Hence, there are scammers who pass off the Lira 500 coin as a €2 coin when returning your change.

Also, in shops / money changers, there are scammers who drop your payment / change and then switch a big note into a small note.

What to do:

Always double check your change.

For big ticket items, always ensure you get receipts as proof in case anything goes awry.

The law requires stores have to issue receipts so do not worry about requesting for one.

4. The Guardia di Finanza (Tax Police) fake police

Guardia di Finanza. Source: batmagazine.it

How it works:

The Tax Police’s job is to ensure that shops in Italy give out receipts which serve as a record for tax collection.

How they go about checking is to ask you, the customer to produce a receipt when you exit from a restaurant or any shop.

The problem is that these police may sometimes be in plainclothes and not uniform. As such there are scammers who exploit this and pose as fake police.

Upon seeing your receipt, they claim that you have committed a crime and have to pay a fine.

What to do:

If you have not obviously broken the law, be very skeptical when a “police officer” approaches you.

Three steps you can use to shake them off:

Verify badges and identification. Threaten to call the police hotline (end of this article).

Never give yourpassport if asked. Show only a photocopy of it.

If they want to fine you or check your bags, insist to only do so at a police station (use your GPS to find it or check with a local) with a lawyer or someone from your embassy.

Volcanic eruption: avoid areas downwind and river valleys downstream of the volcano, do not drive in heavy ash fall, seek shelter (if no need to evacuate) or high ground if no shelter (crouch down away from volcano, cover head with arms).

Forest fires: make yourself seen (e.g. spread out something large and bright), find shelter with little vegetation, stay low to avoid smoke.

4. Transport safety

How it works:

Driving conditions can vary across the country, a couple of factors to watch out for:

Only book via legitimate platforms (e.g. AutoEurope– over 60 years of industry experience, super reliable with best price guarantee).

Check latest media reports and weather forecast.

Stay alert, wear seatbelts, keep doors locked and windows up.

E. GETTING HELP

1. Emergency numbers to call

Police in Italy. Source: Wikimedia – Adrian Pingstone

Emergency number in Europe: 112

Police: 113

Fire engine: 115

Ambulance: 118

Join the community!

Get protected!

64 Comments

Heather82
on June 11, 2016 at 10:05 pm

I’m surprised I’m not seeing what’s perhaps the most popular scam, especially in Naples’area. You’ll get approached by someone in the street trying to sell you an item, usually a brand new, working smartphone, at a very good price. If this isn’t alarming you enough, know that if you do buy something from the person, they’ll manage to make a last-second swap of the bag/box they’re giving you (by attracting your attention on something else), and you won’t find anything valuable in there.

Ok I’ll share one to there was this guy who cane and he was like pretending to shout while talking to his phone then he started touching his *area* then he removed it then he started saying that it’s only 5 or 0ne euro I don’t really remember..in short he was an asshole and when I said no he moved to the other girls and I was like if he was in some other no nonsense country,bitch he could have been beaten or something even tougher to death..

okay I’ll share one too. I was stupid enough to say yes to a guy who talked to me while I was sitting on the grass, not far from the Coliseum (about 5 min walk), enjoying the sun. I am a girl and the only excuse I have to say here for myself is I was trying to be more open with people so he said he would have loved to talk to me longer (so romantic) and went to a shop to buy some wine/champagne. Literally 2 minutes later he asked me for money for this cheap bottle of alcohol. I understood that I was scammed so to get away – gave him about 10 euro. Still very disappointed in myself.

We got a couple of hundred euros bill in st marco restaruant for ordering a fish which is on menu for 8.50 eruo, but they charged on grams of weight. The venice restaurants selling fish/lobsters are bunch of con artists and crooks. Be aware!

Just returned from Rome, florence and Venice. Three times, the taxi driver properly set his meter to”1″ and started at the correct starting price. However, the digits to the right of the meter were not zero, but some other number around 2-4 euros. When the trip was completed, the driver hits a button adding on that extra charge, which I believe would be for tolls or baggage. I complained each time and the driver immediately removed the additional charge. I was not impressed with how many times that happened to us. Beware!

Common scam I’ve seen in heavily populated tourist areas during the summer season is for a ‘scammer’ to shout “PICKPOCKET!”. The natural response is for everyone to check if their wallet/valuables are still in the right place, they are for now. Well done guys. You just alerted all the scammers in the area where your valuables are, and they know where and who to target!

I was scammed on the first day of my Italy trip. It happened at the Bologna centrale train station in the evening. I was nervous that day because i could not find a correct platform to change train to Modena. I am still confused after i asked the train conductors for directions, then i was approached by a young man. He showed me all the directions to the platform and also advised me not to board the wrong train. Shortly after i thanked him, he asked me for tips. I refused to give him money but he kept on disturbing me. I had no choice so i gave him 2 euros to avoid any troubles. It was a horrible experience for me.

I am ashamed to admit it, but I just today for a variation of the petrol/gas scam in Milano. The line was that he was a rep from a watch company and he just finished a trade show. He had these left over watches he wanted to get rid of so he didn’t have to pay taxes on them when returning home to Zurich. He had a brochure and was quite good at the spiel. Of course he needed gas money and even offered to give me the watches when I tried to back away. I guess that is when he got me. The watches were made out to be worth hundreds of Euros. I looked them up and they are some cheap China made crap that looks nice when flashed in front of you. Wish I would have read about this scam before coming to Italy.

Well you shouldn’t use alcohol at all! All these booze scams could be avoided if people would just grow up and set an example and have some morals and not use alcohol. Alcohol is a drug! Just because it’s legal doesn’t make it right! And what gets me is that I have ranted against alcohol for 16 years online, typing my fingers to the bone!

Shoulda, coulda, woulda……. blah blah blah Miss Cindybin. This site is about helping to prevent not criticise like what your doing. Why don’t you do some traveling and gain some experience before you talk.

And that practice has and will never get you anywhere. Feel free to take off the white wig at anytime and get a life so you don’t waste any more time on this frivolous internet crusade you seem hell bent on continuing.

Hi Jude
We are traveling to Italy in a few weeks flying into Rome and have already booked our rental vehicle through Avis at the airport, we booked it online in Melbourne via Auto Europe which is an Australian company and already paid in full. Do I still need to look out for a scam on pickup.

Hi, I’m Italian, living outside Milano. I’m sorry with people had scum experience in my country. we have bad and good things.
I think another scam is the gondola in venice, he asked us 150€ for a couple tour. ( same as horse scam). I mean if you came from far far away maybe you accept to pay but, you know…
One scam you forgot is some people go on train and ask help for pay ticket, usually ask for same euros not mutch, but is a scam, I seen from my childage. another scam you have to know if you have a car is abusive parking helper, sometimes with worksuit too! He just help you find a park and ask you 1 or 2 euro, without really helped you.
recently I have seen many people look at car engine in same commercial zones park, I have no figure out what scam it is yet, I’ll working on it. sorry for my english I use only abroad.

Today in Rome my wife and I were crossing the road down by the Tiber and were spotted by a well dressed guy in a small car who followed the EXACT patter described in 1 above. He started off asking directions “as he wasn’t sure which side of the river he was on”, talked about working for Gallery Lafayette in Paris. He then said he’d give us one of his samples, a jacket, and at this point, we made our excuses and he drove off. He was very convincing and it was only when we Googled “Rome Scams” and got to this site, that my nagging doubts were confirmed!

Today I was in Rome going back to hotel and a guy who looks like a tourist asked us about where is the Vatican or metro station and then a guy in normal clothes showed up and claimed he is police and showed me a badge m. Then he asked us to show our IDs and our money. I got out my insurance Id and then he asked to show him all the money we have as this guy spoke to other tourists and he has fake dollars (both me and my husband) I told him let us go to police station and I shouted where a nearby group saw us and he told me it is fine go ahead to your hotel

Happened to me here in Palermo tonight. Should be 45€ or so to the centro, was 73 of which i paid 70. Nice feeling to get ripped off 1st thing when coming to a city you’re long awaited to visit. Meter was running, guess it was his own kind of meter. Stupid not to ask for fee beforehand but i really didnt think the taxis in line outside this internationak airport were there to fuck u in the ass.

Whilst travelling to Pisa Airport on the motorway we thought a stone had hit the passenger window although there was no vehicle near us to have caused this. We think this was probably a catapult or some such propeller. After this a car overtook us, pointing to our car and beeping his horn. He pulled into the next layby and signalled that we should do likewise. The passenger approached our car alongside the our passenger door claiming we had broken his wing mirror and claiming you could see the damage that had occurred on the side of our car. My husband who was driving got out and went to the scam vehicle parked some way behind us where the driver in the car showed him a broken wing mirror and a website on his ‘phone saying a replacement would cost E600. You pay cash he shouted – and at this point my husband said he wasn’t paying anything as we hadn’t collided with anyone and walked back to our car and we pulled away. They came up behind us again but when we left the motorway we lost them. When we checked our car on stopping there was a black ink line along the side of our car which had obviously been put on as the scammer approached us in the lay-by. It rubbed off with a tissue.

It doesn’t help that hire cars are often easy to pick out because the hire companies mark them as such in some way. We had a smiley face sticker on the back window. So just beware.

This happened to us in Sicily – on the road between Ispica and Pachino. Driver kept trying to get us off the main road away from people – showing affected concern for the dangerous traffic conditions. We got caught out and are now incredulous that we fell for it. Just want to warn others.

Something similar happened to us yesterday. We were driving back to our base in Syracuse from the nature reserve 30 mins away. Having spent a lovely afternoon on the beach, going for a swim and walking, we just set and a few hundred yards down the road there was a car parked at the side of the road (not the place to park on the single track country road), I passed the car with what I thought was plenty of room and as we passed we heard the thud (dull bang at the side off the car), well I thought we must have clipped wing mirrors though it wasn’t the kind of noise you would expect from a wing mirror collision but I thought to myself it couldn’t have been anything else. Anyway, I didn’t stop as I wasn’t sure but the guy (who was stood at the back of his car at the time) sped after us and signalled us off the road, to which I obliged. So moments later I get out of the car and he was polite , dicn’t speak any Engish at all but signalled that we had broken his wing mirror and indicated we should pay him some cash to avoid police and insurance. He didn’t mention an amount at this time and we shrugged our shoulder jesticulating that we had very little money and disputed that we couldn’t have done it. But he pointed to a black line of plastic type of smudge down the side of the car as evidence that we had hit his wing mirror and showed us the damage, so confused, I foolishly went to show that I had little money in my wallet (only 30 euros I thought I had even less) but he more or less said to give him that and he would accept it to pay for damage and avoid calling police etc), I gave it to him just to get rid of him. I was then surprised how quickly he just jumped back into his car and sped off before we had even got back into our car.

We wondered if we had been scammed at all, and how did that black line get down the rear passenger side of the car ? It was like an uneven black line of plastic smudge (almost tar like substance). Surely if we had hit his wing mirror the impact would have damaged our wing mirror too not the rear side of the car. We wondered if he could have daubed that black stuff on the car as he got out his car behind us and clearly scammed us.?!

I am very mindful of these scams when i visit Rome or any place. I think if one keeps their antenna up and in every situation ask themselves if they believe there is an angle here, it might protect them from these horrible parasites… When I got out, I do not engage with anyone as I have no business engaging with people I know nothing about. I stay with my own group and do my best to ignore anyone coming into my company uninvited. It is a good tip to have the contact numbers of the Police in whatever country and also to photo copy official i.d. documents. Never carry too much cash at any time. If you see something you’d like to buy you can always return the next day to purchase something. I never carry a lot of cash when I am out sightseeing. I bring an amount that I could survive without If I have the misfortune of being robbed, I could survive it so it wouldn’t spoil my holiday!

This evening around 10:30pm we returned from eating out after a lovely day at the outdoor pool. Florence is lovely but just near our apartment while I was in a shop paying for icecreams a man had approached my wife and ‘given’ her and my my young daughter small wooden carvings. His patter was swift and he was insisting that these were gifts. He quickly statet that he had family in uk to hiuld rapport and that his wife was giving birth today! Presumably to gain empathy from me. I became quicjly suspicious that he wanted some kind of payment but he said not but contradicted himself and asked for a ‘contribution’.. he was saying that he co tell that I was a ‘good man’ and so on and procceeded to adirn me with some leather wrist bracelet. I became super concoous of my surroundings… my wife and kids had made it into out apartment main door and my pocjets had not been picked… Yet. The smallest note I had on me was 20 euros. I challenged him. I said i didnt want them. I offered thst he tske them back. I gave him my wridt to take back the bracelet. I said this is some kind of scam. He took the bracelet back and began to ask where are my wife and children gone. By niw he had realised i wasnt paying up. He was now saying that I wasa bad man. He had certainly changed his tune. If he took one step inside our apartment main door I thought to myself. I got the wooden carvings and gave them back to him abd shut the door on him. What an aweful feeling. My wife and I then had an argument afterwards and my daughter was in tears. Horrible experience. What a shame on our last night in Florence… off to Venice tomorrow… reading the comments and tips above I guess I had better remain vigilent… but I guess sadly it goes with the territory.

Scammed on regional train in Cinque Terre by train guard- not only fined 108 euro but he also took all our train tickets for our next leg to Rome. When we reported incident, he was interrogated, denied all and others indicated knowingly that this was not unknown. We had to replace tickets and surprise- when we checked on train our previously allocated seats were occupied. In other words, not only did this rail official pocket the so-called fine but so sold the tickets he stole from us!

Beh, I got taken for 1 euro by a taxi driver and feel very lucky…that is the only $/item I lost last week. It was my third trip to Rome and I was extremely careful [zipped money pouch inside my buttoned blouse w/cord all tucked out of site] and aware of my surroundings. I know how to speak read, write and SPEAK Italian so perhaps that is why I did not feel too vulnerable traveling alone outside of my original travel group. Yes, I was ‘hit’ on by the rose, bracelet and neon sellers and I politely said “no, grazie 2x” if they persisted it went “up” and loudly to “NO, VA VIA” which means NO, GO AWAY! I wore a determined and unpleasant expression on my face when I walked with a brisk pace in the terminis, as if to say ‘do not even try to mess with me.’ I had a very FUN Trip!

BEWARE! Another car scam in Italy. Rental cars are marked with neon yellow stickers, so everyone knows you’re a tourist driving. Man # 1 comes up behind on a bike or scooter, slashes your rear tire, then acts “helpful” telling you the tire is flat. When you pull over, he stays with you. Tries to convince you to go to a “garage” nearby with him. DON’T do it, they take you to an isolated place & rob you at gun point. When you refuse (as we did) Man # 2 comes along to be “helpful” & also tries to convince you to go to the “garage.” They’re both casing the car & your belongings. At some point, you’ll be distracted & they’ll get something from the car. In our case, it was my husband’s passport. So be forewarned. You’ll be charged for all the car damages, the police can’t do anything. However, there is a US Consulate in Milan, so you can get another passport if needed. The Consulate says this is the # 2 scam against tourists in Italy now.

My husband and I were in Matera, Italy when an African tried the bracelet trick but I pulled away. He started begging for money. I firmly said no but he became belligerent. I said I would call the police. I am 63 years old and have traveled a lot so I know the scams. I did call the police since he had grabbed me. The police all pretended not to speak any English at all, so don’t expect any help from them with this street scum. The police are very lazy in France and Italy and don’t care what happens to tourists.

Haha, beware of the gas stations (Q8) seemingly having kinda cheap gas but they actually got two prices. The higher one, being like 25% higher is for being “serviced”, so we just paid like 20€ extra for having a guy fill up our vehicle! 😀

It’s honestly sad how many scams there are in Rome since it is such a beautiful place. Yesterday I was walking around Rome and an African started complimenting my pants and tried to give me something but the best thing to do is just keep walking (which I did and always works). Also, firmly saying ‘nein’ (no in German) works well too lol.

On may 4th, we drove from Zurich, Switzerland to Milan, Italy. Our rental car had Zürich number plate and car rental graphics therefore it was straight up give away we are new in the city. Within 10 mins of driving inside the city, our passenger back tire started losing air. So we pulled inside a quite street to check the vehicle notification. (Catch: right when we pulled-in, a Roman/italian speaking man on scooter showed up and stated showing us area to get our flat tire fix.)

He kept speaking in his native langauage and keep pointing figure at a direction and made every effort to get our attention; and we said “thank you” and drove in that direction. Within 3 mins on the road our tire was completely flat and we found parking on another street which was kinda busy street.

Right when we pulled in, another guy on scooter with his phone glued to helmet pulled up and started pointing us to the same direction. He even assisted me to take my spare tire out and our bags from the back of trunk out and kept speaking in native language; kinda forcing us and showing direction and diverted our direction.

Within that second another guy sneaked into front seat of the car and was going through my wife’s purse. Luckily my wife saw the guy and shouted by asking “excuse me, what are you doing in our bags;” and both the guys took off.

Luckily the guy just picked my wife’s purse which had our passports, credit cards, cash; and he dint get away with anything.

When we went to tire shop, the mechic pointed out saying that the tire had be slash on the side and the brand new winter tire is non-fixable.

With rental company guidelines, we had to install not one, but two brand new tires worth 400€.

Since this was our first impression in Italy, we were paranoid. Our trip taste completely changed and we looked at every person who approached us with a questionable face.

This was a very well organized crime where these scammers slash tires, and when the car stops; they take their attention and steal their belongings.

We left the city very next day since we dint feel safe and stayed at lake Como, Italy and made our way back to Zurich.

We tried to make police complain but due to language barrier we couldn’t get through.

16/05
Today we got scammed, luckily not too badly.
We were walking along Via Bissolati towards the Villa Borghese gardens. A well dressed man in a car pulled over and hesitatingly asked if we spoke English whilst holding a map. I wen5 over and spoke with him and he explained he was slightly lost and was looking for Termini. Me being the good bloke I am talked with him then he said we were from New Zealand and his wife was from Hamilton and that the issue was he’d forgotten their anniversary and he was going to Termini to buy flowers on his Amex card. Then he told us he was with Ferrari as a senior manager in their accounts section and that was fine. Then he said ‘ look you’ve been so helpful I’ll give you this gift that we give all our drivers – it’s special and I’d like you to have it. I was a bit hesitant but he seemed genuine. He then asked if we had any money he could use to buy the flowers so I handed over several Euros and off he went. I’m picking the ‘gift’ cost a few Euros less than what we ‘paid’ for it but we got scammed👍😂. You live and learn. We’ve just looked on a website and sure as shit there’s an almost identical situation that was played out except the bloke was from Armani and gave someone some ‘fur coats’. No bloody wonder it works for them. He appeared to be a well heeled 60 year old who played us…… here’s a phot of my ‘gift’ – the watch works and keeps time, the pen works and I need battery for the torch😂😂😂

Hi.
Just met this guy today! But his wife was from Norway!. haha. Had to Google it to see if this was a scam. Amazing! But we didnt have any cash on us so we could not help him with the flowers. What a pro guy!

This happened to us yesterday, but his wife was from Puerto Rico and she was at the hotel crying because it was their anniversary and he wasn’t with her. So he wanted to get flowers. His Amex didn’t work so he asked for some cash and specifically wanted 50 euros. We suspected it was a scam and didn’t give him anything. He left angry.

We got scammed by an airport taxi driver who drove like hell, first timer and we didn’t research on these and charged us 90 euros plus 40euros coz he switch 50euros with 10 so total of 130 euros for a 40 minute taxi drive were just glad we arrived at our hotel alive, so sad how they feed their families by stealing money from tourist and leaving a very bad impression for their country, well what can you do with uneducated people who lives from stealing money and that’s what they’re going to teach their kids, very sad.

On a recent trip to Sicily: Lost in Enna and with limited Italian, we asked a man on the side of the road for directions. He told us to turn around at the bus stop down the road. As I was about to pull back out into the street, he came swiftly down the street on his motorcycle, and dumped it about 8-10 meters up the street from us. Seeing the bike out of the corner of my eye, I stopped before going out onto the street. The bike slid past the car about 2 meters away. The rider then got up limping and yelling and trying to claim that his crash was my fault.
My best guess is that the rider was trying to create an “accident” as part of a scam. If so, he needs more practice and a less cautious driver.
We spent about 30 minutes helping the police fill out an incident report which basically said that we had witnessed an accident. The police made a point of stating that there was no contact, then gave us very good directions for our intended destination.

As an Australian with an Italian girlfriend, even though I speak very little Italian myself, it’s been fun to watch my her really let loose at scammers, last night a smelly rose guy entered the restaurant we were in, he hassled the young Italian couple behind us till, in English I suggested he leave them alone, undeterred he tried to then push the rose onto my gf…. I beat her to it this time,,, funny thing was this nice rose guy tripped out the door while calling me “a f**k ‘, and actually flipping me the bird,, haha classic

I parked on the street in Mazara dell Vallo. I thought I was lucky when find a free parking spot within white marks. Suddenly a guy rushed from near restaurant to our car asked €2 for parking I gave him €5 he brought change from restaurant. To play his role he attached piece of paper to rear wiper..then I realized it’s scam.

My mother was scammed the other day when a guy at Napoli central train station came up and started pressing buttons and bought ticket reservations for 60 euro, instead of our tickets for like 350 euros. then he asked for 100 euros for helping us “save money” and she gave it to him. When we got on the train and left we had to pay over 800 euros for our seats over half the original price. 😑

We had a backpack stolen on the train from Rome to Florence, and unfortunately it had my laptop and camera in it. We had taken pics on our phones, but lost a lot that were on the camera. The laptop thankfully, was password protected, but I still spent a lot of time when we got to Florence changing a lot of passwords. We had the backpack in the overhead storage bin, directly over top of our seats. We were in the last two seats on the train car. Someone apparently stood behind our seats, reached up and grab the backpack – while we were looking out the window enjoying the beautiful scenery. Next time, backpack will stay in our laps the whole time, or at our feet. Rookie mistake, and will be more vigilant next time.

We were in Rome a couple of weeks ago and went to visit the Colosseum. Disappointed by all the scammers and hawkers, we got the African guys with the so called friendship bracelets but we refused them and had to get quite firm to the point of yelling no at them.. They are persistent! We were also approached by a young guy who had a clipboard and explained that he was a reformed drug user, even went in to details of the drugs he used. He was asking for a signature for some sort of petition to get help setting up a so called organisation to help other drug users. I foolishly signed it just to get rid of him and then he asked for money.. I should have known! But I refused to give him any money and I asked him if I looked stupid.. He muttered a few choice words so it was obviously a scam to get money for drugs.. Reformed? I think not!

Me and my boyfriend were scammed right behind the entrance of Colosseum. It was dark when we reached and could not enter,so decided to stroll in the periphery inside the campus of course. In the darkness, two drunk men dressed as Roman guards forcefully asked us to click pictures together and we had to obliged. As soon as the pictures were clicked, we thanked them politely and decided to move away.The guys then held my boyfriend by his backpack and forced us to give him 10 euros!! We did and left for our hotel after that,not wanting to explore the city anymore that evening.

We were walking past the horse drawn carriages in Palermo! We would not use them anyway due to ethical reasons! The guy walked up pushed my partner and said you owe money for a ride! Which we hadn’t taken! He then followed us up the street still pushing him, he even got the other drivers involved! We had to run into a chapel nearby and pay 3 euros just to avoid him! If you see a guy with a carriage, with one only one tooth! Avoid him! He was aggressive and hopefully it was a case of mistaken identity but…otherwise a scam!

We were scammed yesterday in Rome at the central railway station. We had just arrived and were tired. The taxi queue was being “organised” by a scammer. He would pretend to be official ( and asking for tips) but kept switching the ends of the queue so that everyone was yelling at each other. It was a horrible start to Rome.

There is a sign-a-petition scam going on in Rome. While they ask your name to a paper, to distract the others empty your pockets.

The same can happen too without others, but they ask for money after signing petition. The petitions can be anti-drug, or anti HIV et cetera. Keep your eyes open. This was tried on me and my fiancee – they got only few euros. We gave them those euros.